1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to microscope apparatuses.
This application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 2010-258035, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of Related Art
In a conventionally known scanning confocal microscope apparatus, a laser beam whose wavefront is deformed by a deformable mirror is made incident on an objective lens via a galvanometer mirror unit (for example, see the DESCRIPTION of U.S. Pat. No. 7,180,661). This apparatus is configured to change the point at which the laser beam is focused in the depth direction by changing a reflective surface of the deformable mirror.
Furthermore, a scanner apparatus in which a galvanometer mirror is translated in the optical-axis direction in synchronization with pivoting of the galvanometer mirror is known (for example, see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. Hei 10-68901). This scanner apparatus can prevent a laser beam from being displaced from the center of the pupil of an objective lens due to pivoting of the galvanometer mirror and blocked by a lens frame or the like, causing non-uniform display due to insufficient light intensity.
If light incident on the galvanometer mirror is a plane wave, with the scanner apparatus disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. Hei 10-68901, the laser beam can be made constantly incident on the center of the pupil of the objective lens, and the light focusing ability at this time can be maintained.
In the method disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. Hei 10-68901, the optical path length of the laser beam is varied by translating the galvanometer mirror. Therefore, if light incident on the entrance pupil position of the objective lens is not a plane wave but light whose wavefront is modulated, as disclosed in the DESCRIPTION of U.S. Pat. No. 7,180,661, the position optically conjugate with the pupil position of the objective lens is varied, and thus, the ability to focus the laser beam is changed. Although, in the strict sense, the light focusing ability can be changed when light incident on the entrance pupil position of the objective lens is a plane wave, the influence on the light focusing ability is relatively large with light whose wavefront is modulated.